Overwatch 2 Season 10: What You Need to Know

Updated: Apr 22, 2024
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As Season 9 of Overwatch 2 nears its end, Blizzard has started revealing the changes you can expect to see in Season 10. Season 10 will run from April 23rd through May 13th.

Covered in this post:

New Heroes Available for Free the Day That They Launch

In a developer update posted over three weeks ago, Overwatch Game Director Aaron Keller announced that new heroes would no longer be unlocked through the Battle Pass. New hero Venture and all future Overwatch 2 heroes will be free at their launches. This change also made all existing Overwatch 2 heroes free.

Venture, Season 10’s New Hero

If you haven’t already seen it, here’s the Gameplay Trailer for Venture, the new Overwatch hero set to launch in Season 10.

Mythic Shop Launching for Mythic Skins

While details were sparse, the Developer Update posted on March 19th also announced plans to launch the “Mythic Shop”. The Mythic Shop will let you buy Mythic Skins from previous seasons.

Competitive Group Changes

On Wednesday, March 10th, the PlayOverwatch YouTube channel released its latest Developer Update.

This video kicked off with an explanation of changes coming to group queueing in Competitive play in Season 10.

Starting in S10, players of all ranks will be able to group together to play Competitive. Groups with large differences in rank, such as, a group of a Bronze and a Plat player, are considered “wide groups”. Wide groups will only be matched against other wide groups, which could lead to longer than normal queue times.

Overwatch will attempt to match Wide Groups that are shaped similarly. For example, a group with a Diamond DPS and a Bronze tank will try to be matched with another group with a Diamond DPS and a Bronze tank.

To limit boosting, Wide Groups should expect very little change in their rank after a game.

Here’s how Wide Groups are defined:

  • At Bronze through Diamond, a Wide Group is a group with players more than 5 Divisions apart.
  • For a group containing a Master player, a Wide Group exists when players are 3 Divisions apart.
  • All Grandmaster and Champion groups are considered Wide Groups.

In general, these changes seem similar to how Valorant determines what ranks can play with each other. Other similarities include:

  • Solo players will always be matched with other solo players or Narrow Groups (non-Wide Groups).
  • Wide Groups of 4 players are not allowed. Presumably, this is to prevent bad experiences for the 5th player on the team.

Unlike Valorant, Blizzard factors in your rank for each role ( Support, Damage, and Tank) because roles differ drastically in Overwatch 2.

Another positive aspect of this change is that Blizzard expects it to reduce smurfing, as many players were creating alternate accounts to play with friends.

More Teammate Avoid Slots

Yesterday’s Developer Update also revealed that you’ll have more avoid slots to avoid teammates in Season 10 of Overwatch 2.

Going forward, you’ll be able to avoid 10 players and “pin” 3 of these avoided players. Pinned avoids will never be replaced on your avoid list. As for the other 7 avoids, new avoids will replace the oldest unpinned players.

You’ll also now be able to prioritize your avoid list. Players below Grand Master can expect all players on their avoid list to be avoided. However, for players at GM or higher, matchmaking will avoid players inthe order you prioritize your avoids.

Season Ban For Leavers

Players who leave 10 competitive matches in a season will now be banned from competitive play for the remainder of that season.

Improved Anonymity & Streamer Mode

Currently, there are privacy settings to prevent your BattleTag from showing on your computer. This is helpful, as it allows streamers and content creators to hide their BattleTag in their content.

Going forward, you’ll also be able to obfuscate your BattleTag from the players in your game.

Overwatch 2 Season 10 Trailer

Today, April 11th, Overwatch has just released the Season 10 Trailer.

The trailer below shows:

  • Venture gameplay
  • New Mythic Skins
  • Likely upcoming ability changes for Mercy, Doomfist, and Bastion
  • New Battle Pass Skins
  • New Shop Skins
  • A limited-time trial of the new mode “Clash” from April 16th through April 19th.
  • New Map Hanaoka